Have we Changed the Way we do Research in
Response to the Availability of Online
Information?
Paul Blowers
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Barbara Williams
Science-Engineering Library
The University of
rizona
Have you heard this line before?
How do I limit
my search to
full-text only?
Could you
show me
how to find a
full-text
article online?
The Ladder of
Inference
Purpose of our Research
• Document a
• Examine the
baseline of
citation patterns of
information
articles to see if
regarding citation
citing patterns are
patterns in one
affected by online
engineering
formats
discipline
Literature Review
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The effect of the Web on undergraduate citation behavior: a 2000 update. Author: Davis, Philip M. Source:
College & Research Libraries v. 63 no1 (Jan. 2002) p. 53-60
Lawrence, S., F. Coetzee, E. Glover, D. Pennock, G. Flake, F. Nielsen, R. Krovetz, A. Kruger, C. L. Giles.
Persistence of Web References in Scientific Research, IEEE Computer, Volume 34, Number 2, pp. 26–31,
2001.
Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot: Possible Influence of Computer Databases on Citation Patterns in
the Biological Literature. (Statistical Data Included) JAN A. PECHENIK, J. MICHAEL REED, MELISSA RUSS.
BioScience July 2001 v51 i7 p583
Student citation practices in an Information Science Department. By: Oppenheim, Charles; Smith, Richard.
Education for Information, 2001, Vol. 19 Issue 4, p299, 25p
The effect of the Web on undergraduate citation behavior 1996-1999
Philip M Davis, Suzanne A Cohen. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.
Hoboken: Feb 15, 2001. Vol. 52, Iss. 4; p. 309
Indirect-collective referencing (ICR) in the elite journal literature of physics. I. A literature science study
on the journal level
Endre Szava-Kovats. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology.
Hoboken: Feb 1, 2001. Vol. 52, Iss. 3; p. 201
ISI's impact factor as misnomer: A proposed new measure to assess journal impact
Journal of the American Society for Information Science
Volume 48, Issue 12, Date: December 1997, Pages: 1146-1148
Stephen P. Harter, Thomas E. Nisonger
Methodology Used
• We examine literature citations for the top
twenty chemical engineering journals over
the last 10 years
– ISI Journal Citation Report (JCR)
• Quantify number of citations and correlate
with online availability
Why we selected top 20 cited journals
Wanted to investigate statistically significant data - needed many references
Selected Impact Factor to classify top 20 journals in chemical engineering
Example: 2001 top 20
J CATAL
AICHE J
J MEMBRANE SCI
POLYM ENG SCI
J CHEM ENG DATA
FLUID PHASE EQUILIBR
COMBUST SCI TECHNOL
CAN J CHEM ENG
ENERG FUEL
SEPAR SCI TECHNOL
CHEM ENG SCI
IND ENG CHEM RES
CATAL TODAY
COMBUST FLAME
FUEL
COMPUT CHEM ENG
POWDER TECHNOL
J CHEM TECHNOL BIOT
J AEROSOL SCI
J CHEM ENG JPN
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
2003
0
2
4
1995
8
10
Journal of Catalysis
Powder Technology
Computers and Chemical
Engineering
Journal of Aerosol Science
1996
Journal of Membrane Science
6
Catalysis Today
Fuel
Combustion & Flame
Chemical Engineering Science
Ind Eng Chem Res
Journal of Chemical Engineering
Data
Energy and Fuels
When print journals became available online
2004
12
14
TRUE OR FALSE
 The availability of full text databases is influencing informationseeking behavior
 As more full text online articles become available, a shift in citation
patterns has emerged
 Information seekers are limiting their research to online full text
articles
 There is a noted decline in the citation of journals that are available
only in hardcopy when other on-line subject-related titles become
available
 There appears to be less referencing of online journals that are
“prohibitively” expensive, implying that research published in them
may not be widely disseminated even though the materials are
available online
 The shift to online referencing at the exclusion of print resources has
implications in guiding how cutting edge research is developed in
science and engineering
TRUE
The availability of full-text databases is
influencing information-seeking behavior
chem eng news
Catalysis T oday
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
For journals that didn't become available online, average increase of
7.9% while journals online for some part of the
time covered by the analysis had citation growth of 13.4%.
citations per year was
As more full-text online articles become
available, a shift in citation patterns has
emerged
TRUE
Normalized number
of citations (to max)
Print only journals
1
Ind Eng Chem
Res
0.8
AIChE J
0.6
Catalysis
Today
0.4
0.2
0
1991
Online journals
1996
Chem Eng
News
2001
Online journals show rapidly increasing citation rates while journals available
only in print are leveling off.
UNCLEAR
Print Only Journals
Information seekers are
limiting their research to
online full-text articles
Full Text Journals
J Membrane Science
fluid phase equilibr
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
separ sci technol
- Explosive growth of research in the
recent past hides trends
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
TRUE
There is a noted decline in the citation of
journals that are available only in print when
other on-line subject-related titles become
available
Catalysis T oday
J Catal
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
Catalysis today went online in 1998. Journal of Catalysis leveled off then.
TRUE
There appears to be less referencing of online
journals that are “prohibitively” expensive,
implying that research published in them may
not be widely disseminated even though the
materials are available on-line?
TRUE
The shift to on-line referencing at the
exclusion of print resources has
implications in guiding how cutting edge
research is developed in science and
engineering
May end up with second class science/engineering citizens that don't
have access to new information through expensive databases
Science may ignore important work published in print-only formats
The fundamental functions of libraries and research support facilities will
change over time - libraries become less print oriented
Other?
• Purchasing electronic backfiles
–Historical data
• Subject specific resources
What happens next?